According to the US Department of Energy, America needs 20,000 megawatts (MW) of new power generation every year for the next twenty years in order to meet the projected demand and an additional 2,000,000 MW outside the U.S. over the same period of time. The map below depicts the amount of electricity used worldwide on any given evening.


Credit: C. Mayhew & simmons@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive